Kayen's 5g Fluval Chi - Iwagumi - 56K beware

Got bored. 10 gallon was looking ugly.
Tore it down, had extra substrate, picked the tank off kijiji for $40.
Didn't use stock filter/light. instead threw together some stuff I had laying around...

Substrate: Fluval Stratum
Lighting: 2x13w desklamps - trying to get a 10" Finnex FugeRay
Filtration: zoomed 501 canister filter - all the media was random stuff I had stuffed in my AC20, so filter media is already mature.
CO2: Paintball canister with cheap regulator - getting a new one soon.
Heater: NONE I was using a 150W in my 10, but that won't be feasible in this tank since i broke the temperature adjustment knob....
Any suggestions?

Just an update if anyone cares, but I have ordered a new full CO2 setup, and also ordered a 10" FugeRay for the tank as well.

Again I need heating suggestions, also debating if I want to stick with the cheap glass diffuser or not. Haven't done much reading, nor do I have the time so i value your suggestions.

Also RcScRs - I intend to keep just hairgrass for the time being just for ease and uniform maintenance. Keeps it a lot simpler. Original plan was to have glosso up front, but decided just to have one species of plant in there to keep things manageable.

So i upgraded my paintball CO2 to a full set up, and I upgraded my lights to a Finnex Fugeray... For a 3w light this thing is pretty bright... hopefully it'll make my plants happy. No algae problems to report so far, so that's good.
On that note I added some blyxa japonica into the back corner as an experiment and see if it works okay.... Fingers crossed.

So onto the pics...

The new toy:

FTS: Showing gear and all

and some other shots...

Someone is looking to crash the party....

Hairgrass is yellowing, and I need to get a dosing program going... the hairgrass is starting to shoot up some runners and getting a bit thicker, so hopefully i'll see a nicely filled in tank soon.

Your tank layout is almost exactly what I plan to do with my small bowfront.

I've haven't found many palatable options for reliable small heaters:

At the moment, the tank (Mr Aqua 7.5 gallon bowfront) is heated with a 7.5W Hydor Mini heater... and it's keeping the tank at 66-68 F in a 60 F ambient room, where the actual water volume is roughly 4 gallons after adding rocks, an aquaball, and substrate. (The tank only has White Cloud Fry and a couple of Amazon Swords) The 15W Mini may be a good choice if you're willing to dig up your substrate and your ambient temperature isn't quite as chilly.

When the fry finish their grow-out and get moved to another tank, I'm going to try a seedling heating mat instead. A low wattage (The 25W & 50W models are 9.56 inches long) Eheim Jager heater does fit, but it takes up too much room for my taste. My experience with chain store brand, Marineland, and Aqueon heaters hasn't been great. I wouldn't trust their small heaters to work for more than 10 - 20 months.

Edit: The mat might not work for your setup, since the plastic base would act as an insulator as well as break contact with your tank bottom. Heat transfer through the air works even less well than plastic, especially when you're trying to warm something with a high heat latency.

Last edited by flc; 11-30-2012 at 04:57 PM..
Reason: The heating mat suggestion may not be appropriate

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